Qualcomm Announces FLO-EV Next Generation Mobile Broadcast Technology

New Air Interface to Enable a Rich Suite of Mobile Content and Services While Lowering Operator Costs

BARCELONA, Spain — Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced FLO-EV, the next evolution of the FLO™ air interface for new deployments of mobile TV and other advanced broadcast mobile media services. Intended primarily for international markets, FLO-EV builds on the success of FLO technology to enable a rich suite of mobile content and services with greater channel capacity and significant performance improvements. FLO-EV is designed to help wireless operators lower the deployment costs for delivering multimedia content to mobile devices.

Analysts have predicted the global market for mobile media services will surpass $90 billion by 2018. Adoption of mobile media is being driven through a combination of increasing consumer awareness and industry investment. Wireless operators, broadcasters and content providers are all seeking to implement the best technologies to drive new mobile media business models. FLO-EV can help them by substantially lowering the cost of rolling out mobile media services while preserving features critical to the user experience, such as high-quality video, reduced power consumption, rapid channel changing times and increased channel capacity.

“As a technology enabler and leader in the mobile media space, Qualcomm is continually looking to improve the capabilities of FLO technology to deliver more advanced broadcast services to our worldwide customers,” said Neville Meijers, senior vice president and general manager of MediaFLO Technologies. “FLO-EV is the result of our continued innovation and dedication to providing the most compelling and technically advanced offering to both wireless operators and mobile media consumers. By pushing the envelope with our design and development efforts, we are confident of staying at the forefront of the rapidly expanding and dynamic mobile media industry.”

FLO-EV features a variety of technical enhancements to the original FLO Rev. A air interface (TIA-1099), including a 3-5 dB improvement in performance with the same spectral efficiency. This link margin can translate into a 30-50 percent reduction in capital and operating costs to deploy a FLO-EV network. Moreover, the costs savings can be realized without negatively affecting channel change times or increasing power consumption on the mobile device, thereby preserving a high-quality user experience. FLO-EV is well suited for new mobile TV network launches and as an upgrade to existing FLO Rev. A networks. FLO-EV can increase the channel capacity of a FLO Rev. A network by 50 percent or more using the existing transmit sites with no increase in radiated power.